7 Ways to Up Your Game as a Resort Skier Resort skiing is awesome, no matter how you look at it. Chairlifts that float you up the mountainside, hot laps with friends, ski patrol doing all the work so you don’t have to worry about avalanches—skiing inbounds is a vibe, and if you’re like me, you might do it a lot. But if you’re also like me, then you’re constantly […] Brains Martin Kuprianowicz | June 15, 2025 6 Comments
9 Best Places to Ski and Climb in North America If you’re the kind of person who racks up ski days all winter and scales granite when the snow melts, there’s no need to choose between the two. These nine North American destinations serve up the best of both vertical worlds: world-class skiing and rock climbing, often in the same weekend—or even the same day. Whether you’re a powder hound, […] Brains Martin Kuprianowicz | April 15, 2025 0 Comments
Researchers Discover “Best-Preserved” Pair of 1,300-Year-Old Skis Ever Recovered on Norway Glacier A pair of prehistoric skis, more than 1,300 years old, has been reunited on a remote Norwegian mountainside after one ski was discovered this year just five meters (15 feet) from where the first was found in 2016. The discovery was made at Digervarden in September 2021, a site in Innlandet County, central Norway, by glacial archaeologists working with the […] Brains Martin Kuprianowicz | April 10, 2025 0 Comments
New Study from Swiss Researchers Takes Detailed Look at How Avalanche Risks are Projected to Evolve Across 21st Century A groundbreaking new study by Swiss researchers offers the most detailed look yet at how climate change could reshape avalanche risk across the Alps but also globally. Published in Natural Hazards, the paper, authored by scientists from the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF and ETH Zurich, uses high-resolution models to examine avalanche danger in painstaking local detail—down […] Avalanche AvyBrains | March 28, 2025 0 Comments
What FOMO Actually Does to Your Brain I’m now two weeks into recovering from an ankle injury and I’ve caught myself doing something counterproductive: scrolling through Instagram incessantly. While I’m currently mastering the delicate art of navigating stairs on crutches, my feed is full of friends skiing powder lines, standing on sunlit summits, and linking perfect turns. Not only am I missing out—I’m hyper-aware of what I’m […] Brains Martin Kuprianowicz | March 20, 2025 0 Comments
Pre-Skiing Exercises That Can Make Your Day On The Mountain Better and Safer Hitting the slopes is something every skier or rider dreams of each season, and there are times when our bodies do not have the strength or stamina to stay out on the mountain as long as we want. It is the adage that our brains want us to do something, but our bodies tell us ‘N0.’ Every skier or rider […] Brains Gregg Frantz | March 3, 2025 0 Comments
How Taking a Wilderness First Responder Course Made Me a More Valuable Ski Partner On New Year’s Eve last season, I watched my uncle break his femur right in front of me on Alta’s High Rustler, a steep, double-black diamond slope not very far from the base of the Utah ski area. I’m glad it was only a femur because when I saw him slam on the cat track in front of me after […] Brains Martin Kuprianowicz | February 20, 2025 1 Comment
SnowBrains Podcast Ep. 74 | Chris Tomer – Emmy Award-Winning Meteorologist & Avid Backcountry Skier and Mountaineer This episode of the SnowBrains podcast is brought to you by Club Med. Chris Tomer is an Emmy Award-Winning Meteorologist with over 20 years of weather forecasting experience. He is also an avid backcountry skier and mountaineer who has climbed all of Colorado’s 54 14,000′ peaks. Chris has been an on-air host and meteorologist for KDVR Fox 31 Denver and Colorado […] Weather Podcast | December 11, 2024 0 Comments
How to Wax Your Skis In 4 Simple Steps As the snow starts to fall in the western United States, it might be a good time to discuss how best to wax your skis or snowboard. Don’t know how to take care of your equipment? Do your friends ski past you all the time? Do you feel like you aren’t gliding weightlessly across a white ocean? We’ve got you […] Brains Greg Obernesser | November 5, 2024 0 Comments
What Are Suncups and How Do They Form? Perhaps you’ve trudged through them—the several-inch-deep snow pockets that litter approaches during the late spring touring months. Complete with miniature peaks and valleys like the mountains they reside on, the cups can range anywhere from a few inches to over two feet in depth. But what are suncups, how do they form, and where are they found? If you haven’t […] Brains Tate Sundberg | June 26, 2024 0 Comments
How Different Shapes of Snowflakes Determine Snow Quality Granular, Dip-n-dots, sleet, concrete, pins and needles, and of course, the blower pow. If you’re anything like myself, you’ve likely wondered at one point or another what causes so many different ski conditions, and how can you tell when it’s going to be best. Related: The Art & Science of Snowflakes For the passionate all-mountain skier, it’s no secret that […] Brains Tate Sundberg | June 6, 2023 1 Comment
Atmospheric Rivers: How They Work, and How El Niño and La Niña Affect Them This article was originally published on climate.gov When rivers reach the sky Guest co-author Dr. Kai-Chih Tseng is a postdoctoral research scientist at Princeton University and the NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory who is an expert on climate variability and prediction, including the study of atmospheric rivers. In the summer of 2022, Dr. Tseng will begin an assistant professor position in the Department of Atmospheric […] Weather WeatherBrains | January 5, 2023 0 Comments
Risk Taking in Extreme Sports | Why Do We Do Things That Could Kill or Injure Us? According to Psychology Today, some researchers define risk-taking as engaging in any activity with an uncertain outcome. It is indisputable that activities such as skiing, climbing, mountain biking, etc., are all somewhat extreme sports that involve an element of risk. These sports are extreme because the outcomes can be pretty dire and inflict severe injury or even death. Within the context of these […] Brains Greg Obernesser | September 30, 2022 6 Comments
How Does El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Affect Salmon? This article was originally published on climate.gov When we discuss the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (“ENSO” for short) at the blog, we often take a rather human or physics-y view of the climate phenomenon. We’ve published loads of articles discussing the mechanics for how ENSO works in the atmosphere and the ocean, and how ENSO impacts humans from droughts and wildfires […] Weather WeatherBrains | August 11, 2022 0 Comments
Do You Know Where the Tallest Trees on Earth Grow? This story originally appeared on Nasa.gov and was published by Kathryn Hansen. Every now and then, a new map changes the way we view our planet. This is one of those maps. The map above shows the height of Earth’s forests, from stubby saplings to timbers towering more than 50 meters tall. It reveals some patterns you might expect, such […] Brains SnowBrains | May 24, 2022 1 Comment
Orthopedic Surgeon Outlines the Science Behind Shin Bang | Causes, Treatment, Prevention Too benign to seek professional treatment for, and too painful not to complain about—everybody hates shin bang. You know, shin bang—that horrid, painful sensation on your shinbone that you get from your boot after skiing hard? Yes, you do. Although die-hard ski racers in 1 million flex alpine race boots that they can barely walk in might tell you otherwise, […] Brains Martin Kuprianowicz | April 29, 2022 3 Comments
Rescue by iPhone? How 1 Man’s iPhone Saved Him from Certain Death After Falling Alone on a Mountain Solo Session What would you do if you found yourself injured and alone on the mountain? Who would you call for help? Just ask Tim Blakely, a 41-year-old personal trainer and snowboarder with over 17 years of experience, most of which is solo and done off-piste. While casually riding in the Swiss Alps on what appeared to be a routine […] Brains Ryan Kime | April 14, 2022 1 Comment
Colorado’s Ski Season is Shortening Because of Climate Change With climate change altering several factors of everyday life, it’s safe to wonder what effects it has on the length of winter. Consequently, climate change experts predict that Colorado’s ski seasons are getting shorter every year. This year alone, Colorado’s ski season has been impacted by faulty weather conditions. According to Vail Daily, this year alone, 4 resorts were forced […] Brains Breya Bergom | December 1, 2021 4 Comments
What is the North American Monsoon? The North American Monsoon is the general change of weather conditions from hot and dry to wet and stormy for a large portion of the southwest United States from May or June until September. The definition of monsoon, according to NOAA, is “a seasonal reversal of wind patterns changing atmospheric circulation and precipitation, which results in a pattern of wet […] Brains WeatherBrains | August 11, 2021 0 Comments
2 Well-Preserved Cave Lion Cubs From Ice Age Discovered in Russia According to CBS News, two cave lion cubs from the last ice age were recently discovered in Russia. These cubs were so well preserved that they still had their fur, whiskers, and teeth intact. These lion cubs were frozen in the Siberian permafrost, which allowed them to remain in exceptional condition. Related: Microplastics Found in Snow in Siberia, Russia Swedish […] Brains Breya Bergom | August 11, 2021 0 Comments
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